If I wrote, "Fuck you, Veef, no one - not even Bandai - cares about 'original artwork'," would that be clear and aggressive enough for you? Or should I have just ended the sentence after the first three words?

QuoteGcrushIf I wrote, "Fuck you, Veef, no one - not even Bandai - cares about 'original artwork'," would that be clear and aggressive enough for you? Or should I have just ended the sentence after the first three words?

So what do you want it to look like? Some magical image Bandai plucked out of your imagination?

Maybe you could make a rational argument in reply, like the idea of visual consistency across the design with all the thrusters being similarly depicted. Or point out an actual example of how the yellow vents look good in certain interpretations of the design, instead of posting a bunch of arbitrarily chosen renditions of the design (seriously, an SD kit from 1994??) and saying "see, like this!!" as if they didn't all look totally different from each other.

Nope, let's all just be super shitty to each other, and make up completely false standards. Lots of people care about the original design, GC. That's why the robot fucking exists - because someone designed it.

QuoteGcrushIf I wrote, "Fuck you, Veef, no one - not even Bandai - cares about 'original artwork'," would that be clear and aggressive enough for you?

Seriously, I'm posting again because I just can't get over this. I can't think of much of anything that's ruder than replying to someone just to say "no one cares about your opinion and the things you think are important have no value to others". Especially when it's blatantly not true - it's just you trying to tear down someone's opinion on false pretenses. Don't do that.

What the fuck…did Gcrush run over your dog or something? Step away from the keyboard and chill the fuck out. I went back and re-read what I thought were pretty innocuous posts, and here’s my interpretation:

Gcrush: They forgot to paint the dick-vents. Bah.

Veef: Sorry, dick-vents are unpainted (provides one presumably official image).

Gcrush: Sorry, dick-vents ARE painted (provides three official images). But who cares--there’s a better toy out there anyway.

...

Then for some baffling reason, all hell breaks loose. How is what Gcrush said “dumbass passive aggressive toughshit talk”??? If I’m truly missing something obvious or if this is just some personal beef, take it offline. It doesn’t belong here.

Nor do the “dying bbs” comments.

Of course, Gcrush’s “Fuck you, Veef…” comment doesn’t help matters, but I can understand the snarkiness given Andrew’s outburst. If someone called my opinion “dumbass passive aggressive toughshit talk", I think I'd be more than a bit annoyed.

QuoteVF5SS
Maybe you could start posting like an adult on a bbs about overpriced Japanese toys

Hilarious. But, whatever. I'll play along.

Veef, since you wrote "skirt" in your reply it seems like you misread my comment about dick vents. I was referring to the pair of vertically stacked vents on the Sazabi's groin. In almost every iteration of the Sazabi that Bandai has produced since the design debuted those vents are colored yellow. It helps to break up the otherwise monotonous color scheme. (Something that the Shinanju does a much better job of considering that it is practically a reboot of the Sazabi.) Since Bandai didn't paint them on this release it feels like a cost-cutting measure instead of design-accuracy issue. Perhaps in part because Bandai left paint off of the Nu Gundam released earlier this year.

Quoteasterphage
So what do you want it to look like? Some magical image Bandai plucked out of your imagination?

Maybe you could make a rational argument in reply, like the idea of visual consistency across the design with all the thrusters being similarly depicted...

Nope, let's all just be super shitty to each other, and make up completely false standards. Lots of people care about the original design, GC. That's why the robot fucking exists - because someone designed it.

No, not some magical image. I'm going for the visual consistency you suggested. Which is why I showed an MG, HGUG, and SD kit from a range of years. Which I guessed would not have been hard to catch, and apparently wasn't since you mentioned it. Almost every realization of the design since its inception has colored those vents on the groin. That, combined with missing paint apps on the Nu-Gundam, makes it feel like Bandai cheaped out rather than going for something more "authentic". I didn't comment on anything else about the design. At all. Just the vents.

As for caring about the original design, no. The robot does not exist becuase someone cared about the design. Certainly not Bandai. They care about selling products. Even the animation was inconsistent in coloring the vents. Sometimes they were yellow (including the skirt vents) and sometimes not. Only designers and obsessive fans comment on ideas like "authenticity" or "original design" since those concepts are fairly useless in discussing something that is, by intention, going to be subjected to various interpretations over its lifecycle.

At no point did Veef say, "I like the red vents." If he did, cool. Everyone can have their opinion. But he said, "The red vents are official." And, well, that doesn't make any sense considering that it can't every be substantiated.

As for being super shitty, maybe you missed the part where Veef wrote:

And since I'm having trouble understanding what Veef had in mind when he wrote that (see above post), maybe you can suggest a way that I can interpret his comment as something other than "super shitty"? Send me a PM if you do.

QuoteSanjeev
I went back and re-read what I thought were pretty innocuous posts, and here’s my interpretation:

Gcrush: They forgot to paint the dick-vents. Bah.
Veef: Sorry, dick-vents are unpainted (provides one presumably official image).
Gcrush: Sorry, dick-vents ARE painted (provides three official images). But who cares--there’s a better toy out there anyway.
...
Then for some baffling reason, all hell breaks loose...
Of course, Gcrush’s “Fuck you, Veef…” comment doesn’t help matters...

Amen on all points. I appreciate the Rev'rnd being the voice of reason on this one. Peace out.

QuoteGcrushNo, not some magical image. I'm going for the visual consistency you suggested. Which is why I showed an MG, HGUG, and SD kit from a range of years. Which I guessed would not have been hard to catch, and apparently wasn't since you mentioned it.

Right, I got what you meant, I just thought it was a crappy post that did more to be condescending than to make a counterargument.

QuoteGcrushAs for caring about the original design, no. The robot does not exist becuase someone cared about the design. Certainly not Bandai. They care about selling products. Even the animation was inconsistent in coloring the vents. Sometimes they were yellow (including the skirt vents) and sometimes not. Only designers and obsessive fans comment on ideas like "authenticity" or "original design" since those concepts are fairly useless in discussing something that is, by intention, going to be subjected to various interpretations over its lifecycle.

Obsessive fans? None of those around here!!

Really though, Bandai is making product for an otaku market. Otaku care about fidelity to a design as originally drawn. There's an argument to be made that neither coloring scheme is more official, since it's colored both ways in the anime (whether one happens often enough that the other can be considered an error is a discussion beyond the scope of my obsessive fandom), but it's not an irrelevancy that no one cares about. It's a core part of Bandai's marketing, and you need only look at their shifts back and forth between modern redesigns and torturously anime-emulating styles across all of their product lines over the years to see that it's a sigificant factor in evaluating Gundam merchandise. Whether the product is trying to mimic the anime, or the original design art, or some third thing, is critical to understanding the aesthetics of a Gundam toy.

QuoteSanjeevThen for some baffling reason, all hell breaks loose. How is what Gcrush said “dumbass passive aggressive toughshit talk”???

QuoteGcrushAnd since I'm having trouble understanding what Veef had in mind when he wrote that (see above post), maybe you can suggest a way that I can interpret his comment as something other than "super shitty"? Send me a PM if you do.

Dude, you're talking baby talk to us. "Sorry, maeng, but I said DICK VENTS, not SKOITS." That's baby talk. I mean, dick vents? Sure, we can assume that means only the vents on the center pelvis and not the rest of the ones on the frontal pelvis area, but we can't really know that because you're making up terms to refer to your own mental taxonomy of robot parts. I usually am comfortable parsing this silliness to figure out what you mean, but I can see how someone else would find it condescending. I know Veef is being ironic and condescending too, but even if he is expressing it in a rude way, I take him at face value when he says he really doesn't understand what you're saying and takes your obfuscatory language as passive-aggressive superciliousness.

Yeah I don't like "fuckity fuck" baby talk. If you want to put on an act get a tumblr account and get an audience because as one of the four people still checking this thread I don't see the point of being condescending just to add layers of bullshit to get through just to talk about paint apps. Maybe my memory is fuzzy over the ten years this place has been around but becoming the fuckity fuck baby talk guy seems like a recent thing and I hate seeing this place become more of a deluxe collection of asshole curmudgeons.

Oooookay...now we're getting to the heart of the matter here (oh, and I'm sure the majority of TBDX-land is thrilled to watch this play out publicly....so much for "step away from the keyboard"!). So...Andrew and Paul think that "Sorry, maeng, but I said DICK VENTS, not SKOITS" is condescending baby talk. I took it as silly mimicry of a New York eye-talian accent. I mean, who else pronounces "skirts" like "skoits". But how is this baby talk exactly?

They're fucking vents. On his dick. Dick vents. Works for me. And never once did it even remotely occur to me that the act of calling those vents on his dick "dick vents" was either 1) dumbass, 2) passive aggressive, or 3) toughshit talk. By all means, if ANYONE still reading this has ever been offended by Gcrush's or anyone else's similar silly diction, please say so.

Can I get a witness?

And Andrew, we get that you think TBDX is obsolete, terrible, inbred, whatever...but I fail to see how your outburst or your repeated passive-aggressive comments are helping at all.

Well, I assumed he meant the vents on the center pelvis as well as the vents on the skirt armor. Apparently he meant the center pelvis but not the skirt armor? I certainly don't think that's clear from the phrase "dick vents". I mean, the robot doesn't have an actual dick.

About half the time when GC makes up silly terms for things instead of describing them clearly, I have to sit there and scratch my head a bit to make sure I know what he's talking about. I think his general tone is one of complete disdain for the toys he's looking at.

Quoteasterphage
but i am still interested in discussing the consideration of the original design in otaku-marketed products

last time i checked this place thinks toys are a thing unto themselves devoid of relation to any machines fictional or otherwise

And here's the deal Gcrush, you can explain your own posts however you like but it is the opinion of myself and at least Paul that your use of baby talk to describe these toys makes us think like you don't care about the subject and do no care about what other people think. I don't know if you're trying to add levity or make sure we don't take your posts seriously (lighten up veef) but honestly you come across as being pretty condescending and often confrontational. Perhaps my own "mangs" of snark are seen as being the same but what good does it do us when you come up with random names for robots and their bits like you were some kid who just discovered profanity. You explained the joke and its still not funny.

In the end perhaps I should just stop coming here. Now if only some persons would stop linking threads to me~

I like GCrush's posts on Robot Spirits. They help light up my day and convince me that I'm not the only person in western civilization who gives two fucks about Bandai's line that's seemingly always overshadowed by S.H. Figuarts. Even when the line beats me with a two-punch combination of terrible QC/terrible engineering, then slaps me with the palm of terrible materials, GCrush gives me the courage to tell the police that I just fell down the stairs.

If anything, I don't think they're a detriment to the board. They're quirky, honest opinions that I can certainly relate to and while I may not agree with them, I can always respect them. Please don't stop, GCrush.

Love, Apharmd.

PS: Fuck RS Sazabi. My EMIA looks and plays better, and doesn't have a long-ass terribly proportioned face. A sole blot on so far a year of winner releases by Robot Spirits. 'cept maybe Nu Gundam. Even then that still at least looked pretty decent.

Do you honestly not understand that crying over the right to talk like a big tough guy baby around nerd stuff is caustic to the community around you? This is exactly what happened to some other places I used to post at where a gung ho mentality of tough guy posturing and chest thumping made people avoid the place and ground discussion to a halt. I can handle your baby language all day just fine but I'll still voice my stance against it. In a fandom built on childlike enthusiasm (and sincere disappointment), profane disdain in everything you write about is like a bleak rainstorm every other day. And I'm not ready to live in the UK just yet.

I'm not asking this to sound snarky or to take a shot at you. Much like Apharmd above, *most* folks I've talked to have absolutely no problem with what Gcrush has written in this thread or in other threads. This serious seems like only you.

It's like you're bringing your car into my repair shop saying that it won't start....but it's runs fine when I turn the key. I dunno what to tell you, man.

At the risk of "humoring" you, maybe if you can point to actual Gcrush quotes and explain to us how they're big tough guy talk, baby talk, chest thumping, profanely disdainful, or whatever...that might help? 'Cause I just don't see it.

Over the weekend I travelled downtown and accidentally ran into the coolest Bandai shop this side of the peninsula. It had every conceivable mass-market Bandai product (related to rowbutts) available. There was also a generous helping of SH Figufarts and SIC, but curiously there were no Monster Arts or Ultra ACT goods. The interior was massive, a glossy showcase of 1960s futuristic design chic that showed off all the completed models and toys in spotless acrylic cases on top of the generously spaced isles. There was even a Zeonic lounge space with windows overlooking downtown for the women folk. There was none of the back-alley skeeziness or musty “perfume” of Akibahara to be found, though I attribute that to a lack of vintage goodness. On average, the prices were reasonable enough though some items seemed priced far higher/lower than what you might expect. They also had a lot of discontinued stuff packed on the shelves, like a SOC Big-O for around $150.

In short, it was exactly what you would want to see if you spend any time wetdreaming about contemporary Bandai rowbutt porn.

So while I was browsing the aisles at the store, somehow a Robot Spirits Dann of the Third Thursday in April from Two Years Ago landed in my hands and the armed guards at the door made me give them some cash monies before they would let me leave with it. A quick check of internet vendors and currency calculators informed me that I got a reasonable price just below retail in Japan. A quick check of the toy informed me that I got a reasonably funky action figure despite some QC issues and a curious level of over-engineering that I can’t explain.

Even if Gun X Sword wasn’t particularly exciting*, the design of Dann of the Third Thursday in April from Two Years Ago is awesome. The translucent navy colored base body, the Greek infantry helmet, asymmetrical blade on its left shoulder, and the red garden hoses at its extremities are all badass. The silhouette of the design is a mess of acute angles that confuse the eye, but somehow the lanky proportions manage to pull it off without looking derivative. Sure it’s white and blue and red with yellow eyes, but it’s fresh enough to stand out from all the Gundam clones falling off of your shelves.

The toy, on the other hand, received waaay too much engineering. The panels on the chest and shoulders are articulated for no obvious reason, and the assembly for the shoulder armor is recklessly executed with the base simply spinning around the shaft that connects the shoulder joint to the torso; it’s awkward, delicate, and totally unnecessary. There are separate long and short cables for the legs to increase Dann’s range of motion, though they could have just used the longer cables and given them the ability to slide in-and-out of the thigh as you pose the leg; I suspect that would have been cheaper than including extra cables, too. Also, the armored flap on the back of the elbows snaps into place into these little tiny holes below the triceps; the holes are so close to the edge that they broke apart on the left arm while I was moving the elbow. This is a bad design that could have been avoided if they had used recessed indentations for the elbow armor like they did pieces on the instep of the feet. The storage points for Dann’s sword are weak and don’t particularly work well, though I don’t know if that’s the design’s fault or the toys’. Anyway.

RS Dann of the Third Thursday in April from Two Years Ago is, despite the somewhat uneven execution, a pretty good action figure. It looks unique, poses just about any way you can imagine, and has a giant dagger for a cup. Those are all qualities that will make your Mamma’s proud when you bring Dann home for the first time to meet the folks for dinner. Don’t be nervous. They’ll give you their blessing.

* Disclaimer: I tried to watch some episodes of Gun X Sword and it felt like more like Robot X Boring. I guess rowbutt fight scenes must be really expensive to animate compared to people sitting around talking and eating and talking about eating, but I tend to prefer the former over the latter since I get less of it during my everyday life. Of the episodes I watched, the running time was around 25 minutes with about 8 minutes being dedicated to opening/closing credits and 15 minutes dedicated to things like “story” and “exposition” in a narrative supposedly about giant fighting machines that spend most of their time looking like giant abandoned melee weapons that sleep in satellites before periodically crashing to the ground to be piloted by people dressed like extras from Barker Bob’s Wild West Cyclon Showdown. That leaves 2 minutes for giant machine fights and the director clevery hid those 2 minutes in 5 second segments sprinkled throughout the unnervingly accurate depictions of mealtime culture from After the Prison Planet Apocalypse. One particular fight scene had its 2 minutes expertly cut across two separate episodes, thus earning that script writer a Daytime Emmy for “Most Boring Fucking Show about Giant Fighting Robots Named after Days of the Week”. On the plus side, the audience was generously compensated for the lack of rowbutt porn by extended scenes of an 80 year old farmer with a prosthetic golden claw hand flirting with a 12 year old girl in a miniskirt. So, score!

Quotethomas
I think I'm in support of GCrush on this one. His posts have this je-ne-sais-quoi essence that combine parody and ridicule with all-out toy-loving seriousness, i.e. humour.

Mr. Crush is the wittiest and most profanely eloquent poster on this board, which isn't saying much because there are only four people reading this board, and one of them is his mom. Besides the fact that he sometimes condescends to and hurts the feelings of robot toys, I'm okay with him.

But hey, on the once-every-three-weeks-that-I-check-the-DX-board-because-this-is-a-ridiculous-year-for-me-at-work schedule that I currently have, I sometimes read this thread just to catch his reviews of toys that I DON'T EVEN LIKE.

Oh, and Mr. Crush, you're fucking stupid. I coulda told you that the Dann of Thursday show was shitty and not worth watching past the first couple of episodes. BTW, I've been watching Superjail lately. So maybe you're just partially fucking stupid.

Well, just to prove what a moron I might be, I ordered one of those Nude Gundam add-on packs for the not-so-great Nude Gundam I got earlier in the year. The reviews are already coming in, and it looks like the Emperor has Nu Clothes.

Oh, and I forgot to comment on your remark, Mr. Crush, but yeah, I totally fucking love the hell out of the design of TGIF Dann, too. It's too bad that the design is not too toy friendly (Max Factory's version from way back, while much bigger, was also reported to have been saddled with poor materials and non-sturdy jointwork, and the RS version I was warned away from by some toy bloggers a while back).

As for Nu-Gundam...was never crazy about the vertical blinds. (Not to be condescending toward the Nu-Gundam, of course.)

You'll send me an email when Bandai finally decides to do RS versions of the Gundam 0083 mechs, no?

And yeah, I figured you were batshit crazy before you recommended Superjail to me.

One last thing, I was trying to make logical sense out of the comments in this thread regarding your disdain for these RS figures that you buy and review. See, what was puzzling is that these toys are pretty pricey, and it doesn't make much sense for you to buy toys that...I don't know...you clearly have contempt for.

Then I was dick-slapped in the face by Truth: You deliberately buy expensive toys that you despise...because you can. It's like buying a puppy just to kick it.

Quotegingaio
Oh, and I forgot to comment on your remark, Mr. Crush, but yeah, I totally fucking love the hell out of the design of TGIF Dann, too. It's too bad that the design is not too toy friendly (Max Factory's version from way back, while much bigger, was also reported to have been saddled with poor materials and non-sturdy jointwork, and the RS version I was warned away from by some toy bloggers a while back).

Aside from the weak-ass QC on the elbone flaps, I think RS Dann passes muster as an actiony figure. I would recomend it if found at a decent price.

Quotegingaio
Then I was dick-slapped in the face by Truth: You deliberately buy expensive toys that you despise...because you can.

I stopped posting about this argument because GC asked me to in a PM, but since GC is apparently willing to revive it:

Hold up, I've seen PLENTY of guys on the internet who are fans of something, and buy a lot of the new merchandise that comes out for their object of fandom, and are invariably disappointed by it.

Also, I honestly cannot tell the difference, in many cases, between a guy who calls SH Figuarts "SH Figufarts" because he thinks it's a crappy toyline, and a guy who does it because he has a juvenile sense of humor and a pathological need to give things cutesy, vaguely insulting names.

I was just telling Mr. Crush I had planned on not responding directly to your posts anymore, Paul, because, though I'm sure you're a decent guy at heart, I've rarely had a discussion with you that didn't end in an infuriating manner due to what I felt was your unrelenting desire to come off as right, right, right, despite whatever that does to the conversation or logic or truth.

Anyway, I'm responding because you're blaming Mr. Crush, likely, for a comment I made--joking about him being a toy pimp, buying toys he he supposedly hates...which, come on, is rather illogical. But this apparently gave you the green light to lob more personal attacks against him ("he has a juvenile sense of humor")...though he would probably take that remark as a compliment.

Here's the thing. There have been repeated accusations here about the immaturity of Mr. Crush's posts and how much he hates toys, etc. (though it sounds like it's really you two against the rest of the board on this...and according to VF5SS's math, that makes it 2 vs. 2), but to me, the more important issue of immaturity and maladjustment involves not being able to handle criticism of or jokes at the expense of a freakin' toy without losing your shit. And certainly, the shit has been lost.

I think I would understand if someone wrote, "Sazabi and I have been dating for the past year, and you really need to stop fucking talking shit about it."

Otherwise, I just don't understand why it's become so personal with the two of you.

Barring Mr. Crush's comment to VF5SS to "fuck off" (which was arguably justified), he's been rather polite with you boys.

The other day on the way to work I saw a hobo sleeping off a hangover on a subway bench so I needlessly beat him up and made off with his wallet. Then I stopped at The Gundam Base and spent his lunch money on some unnecessary rowbutts. Here’s my book report on them.

This is a slick, smartly dressed rowbutt whose sharp fatigues and construction will make you pine for the Nu Gundam that could have been if only it had been given the same amount of love during the design phase. In addition to the collapsible dust-buster on the right arm and the giant boxing mitten on the left arm, the antlered Gunboy comes with a cool gun, bazooka, and shield for lots of swell play options. You also get four beam sabre handles, though there are only two ignited blades. The articulation is generous and everything that you might want to move actually moves, including a few things you might not want. Interestingly, the slippers are PVC. The only odd part is how the naked gold panels aren’t painted to look “hot”; it would have been cherry if they gave this cake the same frosting that the recent web’sclusive Uniform Gundam received.

Overall, it’s a great figure and would look sweet waltzing next to your Shinanju. The ratio of hobo-blood-on-your-knuckles to satisfaction is very high with this toy.* So high, in fact, that if Bandai ever releases a non-erect version of this rowbutt I would definitely pick that up, too.

Since Dann from the Next Page in Your Desk Calendar turned out to be a swell toy I also used my ill-gotten loot to buy Dann’s sidekick – the bizarrely dubbed Vulcan with No Calendrical Surname. Despite the loose joints in the hips, this is another fun rowbutt with interesting proportions and hilarious choice in weapons. The enormous cannon definitely screams something about male fertility issues that I’m just not subtle enough to catch, thought I appreciate the sentiments that so many rowbutt designers put into ensuring that their creations have the most ostentatious violence-phalluses conceivable given the technology at hand. The range of motion in the limbs is pretty good considering the diving-bell-and-stovepipe shape of the rowbutt. Curiously, the feet are over-engineered with a three part construction that makes them awkward to pose; it genuinely seems like a single piece would have done the job better and cheaper, but what do I know about mechanical podiatry? (Not enough if you ask my toaster about the quality of my foot rubs!) Unfortunately, the most interesting part of the rowbutt also happens to be the most disappointing – the big, blue cape. It’s heavy and poses awkwardly; an injection plastic construction with rotating layers instead of the PVC thing with panels would have worked and looked better.

Fans of Hellboy and/or Abbot & Costello will enjoy how this figure looks next to Brother Dann on the shelf. Fans of steeply discounted Rowbutt Smutage figures might want to wait for a good deal before dripping fresh hobo blood on this box.

Stay tuned next time for more book reports from Little Johnny G. Crush!

* Just don’t expect the same from the cartoon. While the animation was good, the story was the typical, incomprehensible pseudo-political crap about magic-kids-from-space-who-fall-in-love while taking a break from using their giant robotic avatars to kill each other in increasingly spectacular ways.

I had to drink a whole bottle of double-malt-rot-gut to get over the bad taste Bandai left in my robot-hole with the Zaku I Sniper. While I thought the idea of a "bad guy sniper" was interesting and that the design was pleasing, I failed to pay closer attention to an important piece of marketing attached to the Robot Spirits Zaku I Sniper - "Katoki Signature Collection". To be fair, even if I had pondered that long and hard while thumbing for it in my Berlitz pocket Gundam Dictionary, I would have never arrived at a properly translated interpretation. "Signature Ka" is Bandai shorthand for "Suck it". Why?

As a RS figure, let me describe what the Zaku I Sniper gets wrong: it feels like it is made from brittle resin as opposed to ABS, it is almost fully painted in highly-scratchable paint, none of the fragile parts are PVC, it is barely poseable, it comes with several worthless parts you will never-ever-ever use, and it includes a nice water-slide decal sheet.

As a Zeonography figure, let me describe what the Zaku I Sniper gets right: it feels like it is made from brittle resin as opposed to ABS, it is almost fully painted in highly-scratchable paint, none of the fragile parts are PVC, it is barely poseable, it comes with several worthless parts you will never-ever-ever use, and it includes a nice water-slide decal sheet.

You see the problem? Bandai snuck a Zeonography figure into the Robot Spirits line and then charged people a premium for being suckers. Good show!

On the figure I received, the paint was already marred in several places, the wrist pegs nearly broke when changing the hands, and the thighs will not swivel at all without looking like they are going to break thanks to the previously unseen joint design. Thanks to the mostly unposeable lower body, the figure will only ever look right standing at ramrod attention or crouching awkwardly to pew-pew-pew at the good guys from a safe distance. Oh, and it's oversized compared to all other RS Gundam figures.

To be fair, if there are any lingering fans of Zeonography they might well enjoy the figure. But to me, it's an overpriced turd and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than them.

QuoteGcrush
Well, just to prove what a moron I might be, I ordered one of those Nude Gundam add-on packs for the not-so-great Nude Gundam I got earlier in the year. The reviews are already coming in, and it looks like the Emperor has Nu Clothes.

As in, I'm looking forward to this because it just might elevate a mediocre toy to just-above mediocre status. At the very least you can fashion yourself an Oreo flavored High Nude Gundam.

The box is huge. Loads bigger than it needs to be, though this is to accommodate the HUGE pyramid which you will never use because: A) it's so fucking huge that you won't have space for it; and B) the stand is woefully underpowered for holding it up. Seriously. The stand on its own wobbles and bobbles with the fully loaded Nude Gundam on it. The little extension for holding up the pyramid makes it even more unstable. It's a nice, well-done accessory that should have been left on its own for just the anime diehards.

The Char-smashing paw is such a minor detail that it should have been included with the base figure; much like the EMSiA had it.

If you buy the smaller set for the extra funnels and struts - I'm sorry. Bandai should have just included another three funnel effects and struts with the base figure. No extra funnel effects are included in this set and, really, you're not getting much, though you might be dodging the HUGE and likely unwanted pyramid accessory. So, congrats?

As for the new armor, shield, and gun... The shield has no clip of its own, so be prepared to use the one that came with the base figure; sorry, no double shields for you. When combined you get a barely discernably different base figure with the option of either: A) huge and symmetrical dinnertable weapons on its back; or B) configuring those same dinner tables into birdy wings that make it look closer-but-not-quite-yet a High Nude Gundam in Oreo flavors. With regard to Option A, you can get some funky weird configurations that preserve the more attractive ass-symmetry of the original design while making it busier at the same time:

Note that you can actually make the "feathers" longer by clipping more funnels onto them. Again, this makes it a little more interesting. You could also connect another pair of bird-funnel racks on the outside of the first pair so the figure can hold a dozen funnels instead of just six. While that might be cool looking, you'd also have to have bought two add on kits. Boo.

Overall, these add-ons are for fools or diehards. Preferrable would have been something like the rarely-seen and different-enough-to-be-interesting heavy weapons armor (HWS Nu) add on pack OR a new backpack with fuel tanks (for a closer High Nude look). As it stands, the modded backpack and funnel attachment system is plagued by the same loosey-goosey joints and frictionless tabs that made the base toy a disappointment; it would have been better to just re-do the backpack. And, of course, all of the added junk to the Nude Gundam makes the floppy waist and hips worse; you will definitely need to use the stand at all times with a modded Nude, though you might have already felt that way with the base figure.

I stand by the original prognostication that either of these addons will make the sub-par toy slightly more interesting and a little less disappointing. But now I can add that the cost isn't worth it unless you get a really, really good deal.

Well, Ideon had a SOC (and I can't even remember the other mecha in that series), Xabungle, Dragonar, and Layzner had a few SOCs (and some other figures), vifam had a few CMs figures, Votoms had a bunch of iterations, even Galient got a classic and modernized figure, so where the heck have the dougram designs been? And can they please do more Heavy Metals first? Or wacky Dunbine designs?

I had to look up Galatt, and now I remember the chibi-into-mecha robos, but I didn't know they were all that popular...

And the weird thing is, three years ago I advocated for both Dougram and Galatt in the "next Brave Gokin" thread. And they did make all those SOCs. Plus while only Granzort was made in that line, Super Granzort and his buds are being made by Megahouse, and I just recently started collecting them.

While I really liked the show, the design was so much like any other super robot that it kind of makes anything outside a vinyl kind of pointless, especially since it didn't have any alt mode or vehicle team. The show is criminally obscure and if you like Patlabor then it's quite similar in it's approach of realizing a Super Robot in a real world setting.

I'd see a Gravion before Dai-Gaurd. Simply because of all the parts and it's similarity to the GGG stuff CM's has shown it can do.

The problem with Dougram is, it's been done pretty much perfectly once already. The 1/48 Dual Model is really the prototype for the entire SOC series, in a way. And I sorta feel like Votoms has been done to death, too. And what more can they do with ideon than the SOC (which I never even bought anyway)?

In fact... none of those really appeal to me! Maybe I'm just getting too old for this shit!

Looks like the voiting is happening at the Tamashii Nations 5th Anniversary event via touch panels that let visitors pick their favorites. The results are displayed in realtime on a leaderboard so I guess we'll know who wins in a few days!

I'm just catching up on some threads here, but I think Alt is right on the money for Dougram. Yes, a Robot Spirits could be neat, but between the 1/48 and 1/72 Dual Models and the Revoltech, I think both the mecha toy and action figure crowds are satisfied. I'd rather a more posable Dual Model that retains all the springy gimmicks a d diecast than another all plastic action figure.

Not to sure what GCrush's deal is with the Zaku I Sniper figure, either. I was blown away by the balancing of sharp details, articulation, and actual functionality of the accessories. It's like you opened up a different toy or something. The only saving grace is that your constant baby talk instead of using correct names makes it so your wrongness won't come up in searches.